Critic's Rating:4/5
Cast: Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Eva Green, Helena Bonham Carter
Language: English
Direction: Tim Burton
Genre: Comedy
Duration: 1 hour 53 minutes
Story: 1760: Matters of the heart do not really concern playboy, Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp). Not till he rubs Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green) on the wrong side.
1972: Barnabas is set free from his coffin to return to his ancestral home... to realise things have changed for the worse. Time for action....
Movie Review:
Believe it or not, Edward Cullen is probably in for some serious
competition for vampire Barnabas Collins is worth every penny. He, like
all vampires, is not only thirsty for blood, but makes the whole
blood-sucking thing look so natural. He has a gift of the gab - not only
when it comes to quoting from Eric Segal's The Love Story, but also
while using his long-nailed fingers, fangs and eyes to hypnotize his
victims. He is a charmer not just for his looks - vampire, no vampire,
every woman in town wants to bed him -- but for his Ps and Qs in place
(any and every woman is 'Madam' for him). Also, when the libido is too
high, he unabashedly indulges in a little quickie... rock and roll
style. And if all that is not enough reasoning to convince you, here is
one last try: Barnabas is actually Johnny Depp. Depp fans, the actor leaves you with no reason to complain. For the rest
of you, watch Depp's long spiel on something, everything and at times
nothing, transform him into Collinwoods' happening vampire.
The horror aside - there's nothing to make you bite your nails - Dark Shadows clearly works on three fronts. First, is the picturesque setting and visual effect. Presenting his drama in an out-an-out gothic backdrop, a time when witches, vampires, werewolves walked around as the living dead, Tim Burton poses a teaser: Legends are more beautiful than the truth.
Next are the performances. The Collinwoods' estate is full of family members who are representatives of skeletons in the closet of almost every next door family: Elizabeth Collins Stoddard ( Michelle Pfeifer), her teenage rebel daughter Carolyn (Chloe Grace Moretz), a drunk psychiatrist, Dr Julia Hoffman ( Helena Bonham Carter). Each funny in their own way. But the one standing out is Eva Green who, as the sultry boardroom witch, epitomizes the hell hath no fury like a woman scorned funda in this dramedy.
Lastly, it's the comic timing, courtesy the vampire himself. Depp has his own share of problems to deal with. What problems? The sight of a woman doctor! The urgency to find a husband for a fifteen-year-old! Can't really blame him for the generation gap now that he returns after 200 years. For the remaining loops (a little in the second half), it's the music that takes over -- My First, My Last, Top Of the World, and one sung by.... Surprise! Surprise!
After having swept you off your feet in seven different movies, the Burton-Depp duo return to tell us why this celluloid rendition of Dan Curtis' soap opera was the talk of the town in the 1960s. For now, Burton creates some marvelous set pieces where the past intervenes with the present, while Depp creates a compelling picture of comic disarray.
The horror aside - there's nothing to make you bite your nails - Dark Shadows clearly works on three fronts. First, is the picturesque setting and visual effect. Presenting his drama in an out-an-out gothic backdrop, a time when witches, vampires, werewolves walked around as the living dead, Tim Burton poses a teaser: Legends are more beautiful than the truth.
Next are the performances. The Collinwoods' estate is full of family members who are representatives of skeletons in the closet of almost every next door family: Elizabeth Collins Stoddard ( Michelle Pfeifer), her teenage rebel daughter Carolyn (Chloe Grace Moretz), a drunk psychiatrist, Dr Julia Hoffman ( Helena Bonham Carter). Each funny in their own way. But the one standing out is Eva Green who, as the sultry boardroom witch, epitomizes the hell hath no fury like a woman scorned funda in this dramedy.
Lastly, it's the comic timing, courtesy the vampire himself. Depp has his own share of problems to deal with. What problems? The sight of a woman doctor! The urgency to find a husband for a fifteen-year-old! Can't really blame him for the generation gap now that he returns after 200 years. For the remaining loops (a little in the second half), it's the music that takes over -- My First, My Last, Top Of the World, and one sung by.... Surprise! Surprise!
After having swept you off your feet in seven different movies, the Burton-Depp duo return to tell us why this celluloid rendition of Dan Curtis' soap opera was the talk of the town in the 1960s. For now, Burton creates some marvelous set pieces where the past intervenes with the present, while Depp creates a compelling picture of comic disarray.
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